duchening

I always wondered about this. RYBS holds that for chazaras hashatz you
should stand with your feet together because chazaras hashatz is the tefilla
of the tzibur. If so how can the cohanim and leviim go to wash their hands?
How can the cohanim go up to duchen? RYBS also held that on Rosh Hashan you
have to hear every word of the shatz to be yotze with the tekios on the
seder haberachos, again how does this fit in with going to wash the hands of
the cohanim (RYBS was a Levi as well)?>>

It is known that RYBS in later life did not go out to wash the cohen's hands
(I heard from an elder Cohen that RYBS did wash his hands many years ago)
RHS speculates that the reason is that RYBS felt that a talmid chacham should
not wash the hands of a Cohen am ha-aretz. I always felt that the reason was
that he did not wish to leave the shul during chazarat hashatz.
Since the cohen has a mitzva to bless the people that obviously overweighs any
chumrah of standing and listening. There is no similar mitzva from the Torah
on the levi

-- 
Eli Turkel
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